Despite cuts, park work may continue

Published
12:00 am CDT, Tuesday, April 21, 2015

ALTON — Despite the governor freezing a grant that Alton would use to improve Riverview Park, the city will use a second one to do much of the work.

At Monday’s meeting of the aldermanic Committee of the Whole, the panel recommended the city use $101,096 from the Department of Development and Housing’s 2015-16 fiscal year budget as Alton’s local share of the cost. The remaining $404,382 is coming from a federal, National Scenic Byways Program grant.

The work will include repairing a tall, failing retaining wall and constructing a scenic overlook plaza, an overlook canopy on steel supporting columns, alterations to a restroom to meet provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act and installing ADA-compliant pathways.

What will not be included is bandstand improvements.

Last month, Gov. Bruce Rauner froze $748,000 in state-originated park grants to the city. Of that was $148,600 in Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development program for Riverview Park renovations.

A second, related resolution that the committee recommended by 6-0 vote would accept 28,324 square feet of land along the face of the bluff on south side of the park, which overlooks the Mississippi River and Great River Road. Abbott Machine Co. is donating the land.

Two other facilities-related resolutions the committee tentatively approved 6-0 were local agency agreements for federal participation between the city and Illinois Department of Transportation regarding planned improvements to College Avenue; and to reconstruct sidewalks along north side of College Avenue from Holman Street to Rock Springs Drive.

The street improvements, between Central Avenue west to Washington Avenue, would include patching, pavement milling, hot-mix asphalt resurfacing the street, removing and replacing the curbing, gutters and sidewalks, installing an ADA-accessible ramp construction.

That $778,000 project would be funded with $560,000 federal funding administered by the state and $218,000 from the city’s motor fuel tax revenues. The separate sidewalk project in front of Rock Spring Park would cost $43,997. Of that, $35,198 would come from IDOT and $8,799 from the city.

Alderman Gary Fleming, 6th Ward, was absent.

In Fleming’s absence, Alderman Jim Ryan, 1st Ward, moved to have two more bills for attorneys’ fees pulled out of the listings for separate approval, as has been Fleming’s practice the past several months.

This time, the votes were unanimously in favor for a contract negotiation-related bill of $11,543 from Hodges, Loizzi, Eisenhammer, Rodick & Kohn LLC of Arlington Heights and O’Fallon, Ill. The vote was 4-2, though, to approve a second bill of $18,710 from the firm for the ongoing case to fire suspended police Capt. Scott Waldrup, which Fleming opposes.

The “nay” votes were from Ryan and Alderman Charles Brake, 5th Ward.

Another resolution allows officials to sign an agreement with Dynegy Midwest Generation LLC allowing the city to relocate a 24-inch wide, 1,200-foot long sanitary sewer line section that runs underneath the coal ash pond at its Wood River Power Station, 1 Chessen Lane in Alton.

Engineer Scott Weiner, of Sheppard, Morgan and Schwaab of Alton, said the sewer line runs from a pumping station west of Dynegy and northeast to the city’s treatment plant east of Homer Adams Parkway/Illinois Route 3. In answer to citizen Elizabeth Scrafford’s questions, Weiner said the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency will approve the plans. Also, the old pipe will be filled with global grout and capped, once the new “bypass” pipe is in place.

Dynegy is paying for all the costs of the new sewer line.

Other resolutions that got unanimous recommendations would effect demolition of houses at 1315 Highland Ave., 2107 State St. and 2208 E. Broadway.

All the resolutions will come before the City Council on Wednesday night.